Folks don't necessarily think of museum-going as a summertime activity. But the Bay Area art world never takes a season off, and some of the big exhibitions of the year are opening over the next few months.

From a show of Annie Leibovitz photos to works from the personal collection of Oracle's Larry Ellison to a retrospective on the Bay Area part of Richard Diebenkorn's career, there is a lot of art to see and appreciate this summer. Here are our top picks, in order of their openings:

"Impressionists on the Water": The Bay Area seems to have this love affair with the French impressionists. So, in honor of this summer's America's Cup, San Francisco's Legion of Honor has put together a show that involves those artists and the water. The impressionists were always taken with boats and the waves they rode on. Monet often painted in a floating studio; Manet tried repeatedly to be a naval officer. In addition to 80 works by Manet, Monet, Caillebotte, Renoir and Pissarro -- drawn from the Musee d'Orsay, among other museums -- the show also includes boats and boat models that illustrate how yachting and boating played an important role in 19th-century France. The show runs June 1-Oct. 13. Admission to the Legion of Honor (100 34th Ave.

"Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage": Annie Leibovitz is perhaps the best known artist in modern photography, most often associated with her strikingly staged portraits of celebrities (from movie stars to politicians) from such publications as Vanity Fair. But Leibovitz does other work as well, and in this show at the San Jose Museum of Art, she takes a look at iconic America in the form of evocative images of things from Niagara Falls to Abraham Lincoln's stovepipe hat. The 70 works, done between 2009 and 2011, will be at the museum (110 Market St.) from June 6 to Sept. 8. Admission is $5-$8, www.sjmusart.org.

"Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966": Diebenkorn, who spent much of life in the Bay Area, had a distinguished career, but one of the most complex periods of his work came during his time in Berkeley. During those years, he created some of his greatest pieces and went through both an abstract period and one that found him working in landscapes, figures and still lifes. There are more than 130 pieces in the show, including a number that have been displayed publicly. The show opens June 22 and runs through Sept. 29 at San Francisco's de Young Museum (50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive). Admission is $6-$10, http://deyoung.famsf.org.

"In the Moment: Japanese Art from the Larry Ellison Collection": Just how extensive is the art collection of Oracle's Larry Ellison? Well, let's put it this way: He has his own curator. Until now, however, the art has been on display in his home, but starting on June 28 and running through Sept. 22, there will be a major exhibition of his Japanese works at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. There will be 64 works on display, spanning 1,100 years of Japan's art history. Included are notable pieces from the Momoyama (1573-1615) and Edo (1615-1868) periods and works by such artists as Kano Sansetsu, Ito Jakuchu and Maruyama Okyo. Admission to the Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St.) is $8-$12.

"Peter Stackpole: Bridging the Bay": Peter Stackpole was a photographer who chronicled the original construction of the Bay Bridge in 1935 and 1936. The 24 black-and-white photos include jaw-dropping shots from the catwalks high atop the bridge as well as more abstract pieces that focus on the bridge's architecture and portraits of the those who built the imposing structure. It will be at Oakland Museum of California (1000 Oak St.) from July 20 to Jan. 12. It also serves a setup for the museum's "Above and Below: Stories From Our Changing Bay," a huge exhibit about the Bay that opens Aug. 30. Admission: $6-$12, www.museumca.org.